A B.C. brother-sister team has built its way to the final rounds of the on American television, with all eyes on the $100,000 grand prize.
LEGO-loving siblings , a Surrey resident, and his sister Emily, who lives in Maple Ridge, have excelled with their tiny-brick builds in this fall鈥檚 third season of FOX-TV鈥檚 reality-competition series, also seen on CTV.
David Guedes is a 鈥淟EGO lifer鈥 who successfully auditioned for the Will Arnett-hosted show, then chose his sister as team partner. The show finished shooting in Atlanta last spring, but the siblings are watching it now for the first time. They won鈥檛 (and contractually can鈥檛) say how it all ends Dec. 14 in a double-episode season finale.
鈥淒oing reality TV was completely new for me,鈥 David said. 鈥淚鈥檝e spent a lot of time building LEGO over the years, but never on camera.鈥
In this week鈥檚 episode, to air Wednesday (Dec. 7), the Guedes are among four teams left in the competition. The pairs split into teams to build a race car. In a 10-lap race, the winning team will be safe from elimination and guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals.
In the 鈥渇inal four,鈥 the Guedes team is up against Calgary firefighters Stephen Joo and Stephen Cassley, an 鈥渋nfluencers鈥 duo of Nick Della Mora (Toronto) and Stacey Roy (琉璃神社), and the American Tull brothers.
鈥 RELATED: .
So far, the challenges have included creating a LEGO bull-riding character to mount an actual mechanical bull, a 鈥淕uardians of the Galaxy鈥 build, a LEGO tree house with real trees, and more.
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Both in their mid-30s, the Guedes siblings had a lot of fun filming 鈥淟EGO Masters鈥 and also watching the episodes on TV over the past couple of months.
鈥淔ilming the show was so much fun,鈥 David said, 鈥渂ut I鈥檓 really enjoying watching it now. Despite knowing what happened when we were there on set, you don鈥檛 know how it鈥檚 going to be portrayed on television and what happened with the other teams. When we were there we were so focused on what we were building, we didn鈥檛 see what everyone else was building.
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David, known as Lettuce in the LEGO world, has been building with the bricks all his life, 鈥渢hough he had a 鈥榙im age鈥 in his teens, and didn鈥檛 buy any new sets for six years,鈥 .
In recent years he鈥檚 displayed LEGO creations at conventions, and lives in the Clayton area with his wife, two sons, a dog and a couple million little plastic bricks. .
David recalls a childhood in Maple Ridge with lots of LEGO around, starting with a big bucket of hand-me-down bricks when Emily was a baby. Now she works as a hospital unit clerk, and he鈥檚 a .
鈥淪he鈥檚 a great teammate,鈥 David said. 鈥淲e get along better than anyone else.鈥
This season of LEGO Masters started Sept. 21 with 24 contestants competing in pairs, with a 鈥淗oliday Bricktacular鈥 special to air Dec. 19-21, days after the Dec. 14 season finale.
First, the semi-finalists have 10 hours to build a fountain that uses water. Then the three remaining teams have 24 hours to build their best creation possible. In a final twist, they鈥檙e given gift bags with the first sets they built as kids, to celebrate 90 years of LEGO. .
Next up for the Guedes siblings is a .
鈥淚鈥檒l display there as well as Emily and some others from the show,鈥 David reported. 鈥淲e get together any chance we get, at conventions all over the place.鈥
- with files from Neil Corbett, Black Press Media